Text: Mark 1:29-39
Theme: “Let Me Know If You Need Anything”?
5th Sunday
after the Epiphany
February 8, 2015
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau
+In
the Name of Jesus+
29 As
soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of
Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s
mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about
her. 31 So
he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she
began to wait on them.
32 That
evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and
demon-possessed. 33 The
whole town gathered at the door, 34 and
Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but
he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
35 Very
early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and
went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look
for him, 37 and
when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere
else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have
come.” 39 So
he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out
demons.
It’s Scouting Sunday
today! Thanks to Jason and Mikey Pierce
for serving in the liturgy morning. We
give thanks to God for scouting and for all efforts that provide good skillsets
to children and that assist parents in enabling their kids to be the best they
can be.
Today, by way
of connection, we get to examine some of the skillsets of Jesus Himself. It is the second last Sunday in the
Epiphany. Next Sunday, at
Transfiguration, Epiphany ends with a big blast of glory as Jesus is
transfigured on the holy mountain. Do stay tuned! But before that high drama, we have before us
this morning the lovely gospel of Peter’s mother-in-law’s flu. She must have
been coughing a lot with a slightly spiked temperature, so do stay in bed. It’s
been going around; I had a touch of it late last week. A good night’s sleep seemed to snap me out of
it. Last report, at the chaplain meeting at
Presbyterian hospital a few months back, is that the flu vaccine is only about
half as good this year. Logically, that
means that you might get only half the flu, and you feel as though your body
can’t make up its mind whether its sick or not. What fun! (I’m being
facetious.) Was Jesus better than a half-good flu shot? We shall see.
As it turns
out, it was an incredibly busy day for Lord Jesus, the kind that might make one
more susceptible to the flu. I think we
all know how that feels on occasion. As
Mark records, there were lots of healings, castings out of impure spirits, and
so forth. It was all in and around
Capernaum, a town on the north shore of Galilee that we visited in last
Sunday’s gospel reading too. Two weeks
in Capernaum is kind of nice; I love this time in the church year.
It would
appear, though, that Jesus didn’t get the required “good night’s sleep” that
all of us are advised by “experts” to have.
It was a long day to begin with.
Then what does he do? He gets up
before dawn and leaves by himself to what Mark calls a “solitary place”. Do you have a “solitary place” to go to? Try it; you may like it. What did He do in the aforementioned
“solitary place”? He prayed. I like to call it “checking in with
headquarters.”
Solitary time
didn’t last very long. Life, with all
its pressing needs, went hunting for our Lord again. Here come the disciples out looking for him. Ever
felt like everybody’s looking for you? Finally, they find him only to report
that “everyone is looking for him.”
Jesus replied, “Lets go somewhere else.”
I love that
short passage; it teaches so much. The
church doesn’t set the agenda for Jesus.
It’s the other way around. Jesus
sets the agenda for the church. Allow me
to state it a little differently: “It’s
not that I’m a member of presbytery and you are a member of First Presbyterian
Church. That’s not the big deal. Presbytery and local congregation are good
only insofar as they enable us to be better Christ-followers. Christ.
That’s who we are following – and not the dictates of a religious
organization or, worse, religious club.
So one
skillset that emerges, in what I hope will be a practical message for you
today, is that Jesus sets the agenda for the day. That’s foundational. You are
skilled when it’s the Lord who is calling the shots in your life. Our
grand ideas take second place to the faith the Spirit of Jesus gives and the
love we get to extend to others. Get
that hardwired into your head and heart, and see what happens! One good practice toward that is finding your
“solitary place” each day and spending time alone in meditation and prayer.
Another
skillset emerges from this gospel reading from Mark. Recall that Jesus stepped into the home of
Peter and Andrew. He brought James and
John along with him. There they were in the
living room. They told Jesus that
Peter’s mother-in-law was in bed with the fever. How old she was, how sick she was we are not
told. But, most of the time, when we,
the followers of Christ, are told about or encounter a friend or loved one who
is sick or even very sick, we say: “Let
me know what I can do.” I’ve said it
more times than I can count, and I’m sure you have to. I’m not saying we don’t mean well when we say
it, but let’s dig a bit deeper. Is it
really the appropriate, or even Jesus-like, thing to say? I’ll have more on that in a moment.
In the early
1990s, while a Lutheran pastor in Indiana, I performed a wedding ceremony for a
young lady and her fiancé in our congregation.
Three or four months later, the man, 20something, who was in seemingly
perfect health, died. He fell asleep on
the sofa in their new home and never woke up.
Fast-forward to the visitation at the funeral home, I was standing with
this brave young woman as she received the condolences of her friends, extended
family, and church members. One church
member – and I recall this as if it happened yesterday! – took the grieving
woman’s hand and said: “He’s in a better
place.” Without missing a beat, the
woman looked her in the eye, as they welled up in tears, and said: “We had a pretty (expletive deleted) nice
place here.” This pious church lady was
shocked – and she should have been.
Sometimes we Christians fall victim to pious platitudes (not that all of
them are bad). On occasion, though,
those platitudes can do more harm than good.
We end up saying something just for the sake of saying something.
We return to
the living room in the lowly little world of Peter and Andrew’s house. Jesus hears of mother-in-law’s illness. Note with me that He does NOT say what we so
often say: “Let me know what I can
do.”
Why do we say
that? First, lets establish that we mean
well, and that’s okay. But aren’t there
times, more than we care to admit, when the conversation is awkward and we’re
uncomfortable. “Let me know what I can
do”, which has become something of a cliché, is often a verbal cue that we
would like to be excused.
Jesus, for His
part, did not ask them to assign Him tasks to accomplish. He likely recognized that His hosts at that
honme were burdened enough with mother-in-law so sick. It’s not what He said; it’s what He did. His only reply was to leave them and go to
her. The holy, sinless, Son of God, announced
by angels, and Savior of the world is there; with all of Himself He is there
just for her. He lifted her up by the hand
and the fever left her.
She had some
skillsets of her own. What does she
do? She doesn’t run around the house
singing this: “He touched me”. That’s a nice, sentimental song and all of
that, but she appears to be a more practical Christian. “He touched me – Oh, He touched me – and Oh,
the joy that floods my soul.” With all
due respect to Bill Gaither who wrote it, she said – or sang! -- nothing of the
sort.
She did what
was right there for her to do. That’s what the epiphany, the manifestation of
Jesus healing, does for her: “She began to wait on them.” Closer to the original language, she “served”
them. It’s a very Christ-like thing for
Christ-followers to do: serve. Jesus Christ said: “I am among you as One who serves. He that would be great among you must first
be your servant, for the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve – and to
give His life as a ransom for many.”
Yes, it was a
busy day for Jesus. We’ve had them
to. But, refreshed and feeling better, she served them; they likely sat down to a
meal – and the happy conversation that went with it – where her favorite recipe
was prepared and enjoyed. Oh, to be a
fly on the wall in the lowly little world of Peter and Andrew’s house there on
the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
As a great teacher once shared, “If there aren’t enough chairs, we can
sit on the floor.”
Lord, give us
the skill to know that you call the shots and set our agenda. Grant us the skill to serve, to do what is
right there for us to do. Inspire us with the willingness to practice these
skills – and not only in church. Amen.
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